Amisha Gadani’s work focuses on creatures she finds curious or strange. Blowfish Dress, presented as a video, is part of an ongoing series of kinetic, wearable dresses based on animals that have interesting defense systems. For each garment she incorporates these protective mechanisms into women’s evening dresses. In this case, the dress mimics the natural defense of a blowfish, which can expand in size to ward off predators. As with many of her projects, this series incorporates scientific research she conducts during residencies in biology labs.

Gadani is an artist-in-residence at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Alfaro Lab and in the school’s Institute for Society and Genetics lab. She previously worked for an interdisciplinary arts research lab at Carnegie Mellon University’s Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. Her work has been exhibited across the country, including at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; the DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY; the Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco, CA; and Gallery Raku, Tokyo, Japan. The artist received a BA from Carnegie Mellon University.

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Support for the Visual Arts Program is provided by Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Community Trust Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, and by the Cathy and Stephen Weinroth Commissioning Fund for the Arts.